1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to controlling printing equipment, and more specifically to a system and method for communicating commands to computer control printing and paper handling equipment.
2. Description of Related Art
High volume, high capacity printing systems have been developed that allow a variety of types of processing to be performed to the paper or other media upon which data is printed. An example of such printing system are completely automated systems that produce paper bills to be mailed to customers of utilities or other entities that mail a large number of bills. These high speed printing systems are able to produce from several hundred to over one thousand pages per minute. These printing systems further have pre-processing and post-processing equipment to handle and further prepare the paper or other media that is processed by these printing systems or by successive systems (such as an off-line inserter). Examples of such pre- and post-processing equipment include machines that cut, fold, perforate, staple, edge stitch, post-print, unwind paper, insert sheets from the printer or other paper-supply sources into a stack of printer output and stuff assembled packages of paper into envelopes for mailing.
The pre- and post-processing equipment, which are generically referred to herein as ancillary printing equipment, use a variety of physical and logical connection methods. Each interface between and among this equipment as well as with a printing server is typically designed especially for the devices being connected. This has resulted in the use of a large number of interfaces, both the physical interface as well as the software interface used to command the printing system components, that must be supported by manufacturers. Many of these interfaces are also proprietary to the manufacturer of a particular piece of equipment. This has created difficulty in efficiently integrating or replacing printing system components, especially when mixing components from different manufacturers.